Hey loves! Goodness, do I have a beauty of a bespoke wedding invitation design to share with you today. Beautifully rich colors and a custom monogram incorporating the same florals as were in the bride's wedding bouquet, this one was one of my favorite custom wedding invitation designs from the winter of 2016.

When Victoria and her mom came to me inquiring about invitation design, my heart skipped a beat with excitement when they told me what they wanted the suite to incorporate. Burgundy, navy, and florals. It was perfect. For their wedding venue, they were going to use lanterns on the tables along with twinkling lights, and so after a few different proposed ideas, I had an idea to create a lantern with their initials in the middle of it, to symbolize the swirling of the lights inside each of them. Needless to say, after the florals were added to the base of the lantern design (which just so happened to be the exact same flowers they had throughout the wedding day!) this one was the winner.

Victoria and Nathan requested to do something that I am seeing happen more and more often, which was have their guests RSVP online to their wedding. This came in really handy because for those who didn't reply with their RSVP on the website by the requested date, they simply sent them a quick text message or email with the link to the website and their guests could reply right then and there. It was helpful and also brought the cost down a little bit because they didn't need to have an RSVP envelope or a stamp included in their wedding cost. Because of this, we were able to use that part of their budget to create custom stamps that paired beautifully with their invitations ... and were just another beautiful touch to the entire suite that we loved!

Aren't these simply beautiful? Which is your favorite part? I think that for me, it's the rose that is sitting happily nestled into the bottom curve of the N on the envelope liner. It reminds me of sitting in a hammock and simply being relaxed and comfortable, exactly how you want to be on your wedding day.

Before I let you go, there is one more piece that I want to start incorporating within this blog - for each post where invitations are included, I want to share a few tips and things to consider when you are planning your wedding as far as the paper side of things go. So for each Bespoke Invitation Collection that is shared here, I will add a few tips or suggestions that came up to help you with planning the paper for your wedding day, questions to ask yourself when you're thinking about your own invitations.

Invitation planning Tips

1. Should you have your guests RSVP online?

If the majority of your guests are younger, chances are you will have a much better response rate if they can reply online. However, this is also probably one of the only times in your life that you will receive happy mail probably every single day for a few weeks leading up to the wedding ... there is nothing better than a mailbox filled with cards from your friends and family, so take that into consideration too.

Since I tend to be more on the traditional side when it comes to your wedding invitations, I would suggest to still include the paper option of the RSVP the majority of the time. However, for Victoria's wedding above, the online RSVP option made more sense. So, take your guests into consideration ... what will you have a better response rate with? Will they be more willing to reply online or send you something in the mail? In addition, if you have an online RSVP, that means you will need to set up a website for them to do that with ... there is a little bit more work involved because you have to create a website that houses their information, but there are plenty of amazing options available for you to have a website for free for your wedding too. Just a few things to think about!

2. Is there one particular element you want to include in your wedding invitation suite?

For Victoria, from the beginning, it was all about the lanterns and the flowers. However, we wanted to keep it more simple in style instead of having florals take over the suite, so we decided to bring it in as a subtle touch - but her invitation wouldn't have felt complete if we didn't incorporate a lantern in some way. Creating a monogram with the lantern included was the best part! For your wedding day, is there something you are bringing in that you want incorporated everywhere? What is it, and could it possibly be added to your invitation design to make them more unique and give your guests a more detailed peek of what your wedding day will be like?

3. Do you really need an envelope liner?

This is probably one of the most common questions I am asked. However, I will always, always say that you don't necessarily need one, but the impact that it makes is tremendous. The envelopes above would have had a totally different look if we hadn't incorporated an envelope liner into the design, so for that reason I say yes yes yes, always add an envelope liner. Always. :) It's a bonus too, as an unexpected surprise that automatically makes your guests smile when they open the envelope ... and that alone makes it worth it too.

I hope you loved Victoria and Nathan's suite as much as I do! If you are a bride looking for a designer to work with to create a beautiful wedding collection for your day, I would love to chat with you. For more information and to see additional designs I have created, pleasesee my Portfolio here. Or, if you have questions, please inquire here!

A big thank you to Aislinn Kate for capturing these images for me to share with you today. I'll be back on the blog on Tuesday sharing about Serendipity Sessions, with the next wedding related post the following Tuesday, on April 25th! (and that is a post you won't want to miss ....)